


RANDOM HARVEST

by vanhunks



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 20:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7521424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanhunks/pseuds/vanhunks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lainey Dean met John Adam on the day of the Festival of the Moons on the planet Melvech deep in the Gamma Quadrant, little did she know that her life would change forever. Their idyllic life is shattered when, three years after they married, Adam leaves on a mission and never returns. Her search for Adam leads her to the  Alpha Quadrant.</p><p><strong>An über [AU] story</strong> set in the Gamma and Alpha Quadrants</p>
            </blockquote>





	RANDOM HARVEST

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Reader, before you proceed with the story, I’d like to give you the background, as I think it is important. **Random Harvest (my story) was based on the novel Random Harvest, by James Hilton** , as well as the 1942 filmed adaptation of the book, starring the great **Greer Garson** and **Ronald Colman**. 
> 
> It is an über - alternate universe - story. Expect nothing as it should be, even in this alternate universe. I changed so many rules, please do go along for the ride. Since so many writers wrote AU stories or über stories, I thought I should try my hand at it. I am a collector of classic films, and thought **RANDOM HARVEST** (Film, and book) had a wonderful premise and perhaps ideal for the Paris/Torres relationship.
> 
> I have borrowed that premise to use in my own story, and I have also included bits of the dialogue of the film. Those who are familiar with the film, will probably recognise the dialogue. I have recreated some of the incidents in the film and book a little differently for my own adaptation, while I retained the milieu of the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. When I pondered over which pairing would be most suitable for this film, my choice was Tom and B'Elanna, whom I thought ideal to place in this milieu. 
> 
> To serve the plot and plot development, I have bent some assumptions:
> 
> 1\. In this universe, Caldik Prime did happen for Tom, but he was exonerated of blame.
> 
> 2\. In this universe, Nick Locarno (TNG, "The First Duty"), disgruntled and miserable after being cashiered out of the Academy, joined the Maquis. It was Nick Locarno Janeway negotiated for at the New Zealand Penal colony. He piloted Voyager during its Delta Quadrant years. 
> 
> Of the classic films in my possession, I love RANDOM HARVEST the best, so this story is also a tribute to the film and book.
> 
> DISCLAIMER 1:  
> The Starship Voyager, the characters Tom and B’Elanna, Owen Paris, Harry Kim, Janeway and Chakotay belong to Paramount. I borrowed them to use in a very warm and wonderful love story. They will be returned.
> 
> DISCLAIMER 2:  
> The characters of Kitty and Harrison belong to James Hilton and MGM. Them I have also borrowed, although their function and relation to the principals are slightly different in my story. 
> 
> ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:  
> James Hilton for creating this wonderful premise, and creating two wonderful characters to play out the premise in his novel.  
> Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis for the screenplay of the 1942 film. I have included in certain instances bits of the dialogue of the film.
> 
> TRIBUTE:  
> Finally, I have dedicated this story to the memory of the principal actors in the film, Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, who played Charles Rainier and Margaret Hansen (Smithy and Paula) respectively.
> 
> RATING: I have given it a lot of thought. It does not exactly fall under NC-17, not the kind I have written in some of my other stories, anyway. It is perhaps closer to R, since there is no real graphic/explicit description of sex. Decide for yourself.

* * *

She found him on the day of the Festival of the Moons. On that day - or night - the three moons of the planet Melvech aligned in an almost straight line. Only once in a cycle this phenomenon occurred. When this happened, the inhabitants believed that they would be blessed with good fortune and fertility. In all the cities of the planet’s northern hemisphere, the inhabitants took to the streets and narrow lanes to celebrate the festive occasion. Then the goddess Thuryah would appear and personally bless them.

Dressed in their long, flowing robes that enhanced their slim, tall bodies, men and women moved along the narrow lanes,  performing ritual dances to the delight of all the off-Worlders. Melvech had numerous rituals for most occasions, be it fertility, the gathering of the crops, to initiate new incumbents into the most holy of their spiritual shrines and the Temple of the Moon. Yet it was a society that possessed warp technology.

The Melvechians were an ancient civilization that boasted a ten thousand year existence. Many of the rituals of the present day had been celebrated in their distant past, and most of them, including the Festival of the Moons, were practiced in exactly the same manner of six, seven thousand years ago.

It was almost night and already they could see the three moons emerging as if they just swelled into the blue sky. This caused again another stir of excitement as thousands of dancing and singing Melvechians proceeded towards the centre of the First City.

Even keeping close to the walls of the buildings flanking the narrow lanes, Lainey Dean had to force her way through the rangy Melvechians who seemed to close ranks as she tried to get past them. She muttered impatiently as she successfully negotiated past one Melvechian and then another and another. She didn’t have much interest in the festivities. She needed to reach her friend’s house quickly. It blinded her to the infectious laughter, the joy, and the carnival atmosphere in the streets. Keeping her head down and her hands outstretched to push some revelers out of the way, she did not see the man until he stumbled against her, knocking her breath away as his elbow collided with her abdomen. She very nearly pitched headlong into the narrow alley, but her recovery was swift and with a growl Lainey turned on him.

“Hey, watch out! Are you drunk or something?” she shouted.

“I-I’m so s-sorry,” the stranger stammered as he leaned against the wall, while she quickly collected herself.

“You should watch where you’re going, you pig!” she snarled, irritation in her voice.

It was only when she stood up in front of him, that she saw his face clearly in the light of the overhead lamps. He was patently sick, or really drunk, she thought. He had a pale, sickly pallor. Also, he was clearly not Melvechian.

“S-Sorry. I-I s-said I’m sorry,” he repeated.

Seeing he really looked penitent, she said, “Listen, you don’t look well. Let’s just get away from this crowd. Come.” She took him by the hand and led him down the lane, barging through the crowd until they were clear. “There’s a pub right here.”

It wasn’t as noisy inside as in the streets. She headed for the nearest table where they sat down. Seated opposite him, she got a good look at the stranger. A human, she decided, with reddish beard and the bluest eyes she had ever seen, although they were bloodshot. He was in rags and appeared very unkempt. His hands rested on the surface of the table. His fingers were long and she gained the distinct impression that he had not known hard physical work.  Yet...

He looked at her intently. _No doubt curious about my race_ , she thought, a little angrily.

“What is your name?” she started the conversation.

“T-They call me Adam. John Adam. B-But that-that is not my real n-name,” he stammered.

“That’s okay,” she smiled, for the first time, her teeth showing pearly white against her tanned skin. “My name is Lainey Dean, and that’s not my real name either.”

“I l-like that. Lainey. Y-You must f-forgive me, m-my s-speech, I-“ He raised his hand to his mouth as he said that.

“Hey, don’t worry, I understand you,” she smiled again and touched his hand on the table. It felt very warm. She was drawn to this stranger’s plight, to this stranger, she admitted.

“I-I don’t...know how-how I got here. To this p-place. I-I lost my-my memory. At the-the hospital...t-they gave me... the n-name.”

“The hospital? How did you get out? No one gets out there! Shouldn’t you go back?” she said in alarm.

“No! No. I-I’m sorry. But it...it - please, I don’t want to-to go back. I’m all right, really. It’s just...my memory. I’m all right.”

“I can see you’re really scared. You can hang out with me, if you want to. I was on my way to my friend’s house. I stay there when I’m in the city. Want to come with?” Somehow she knew he would say yes.

“I-I don’t want...to impose on you,” he started.

“Nonsense, it’s not a big deal. We are both strangers here. I can see that."

“You-you are...different,” he stammered again. “Are-are you a...Klingon?” and he frowned heavily when he said that.

“Half human, half Klingon,” she said self-derisively, the ridges on her brow now more pronounced than ever.

“You-you s-shouldn’t mock yourself. You are unique, I-I think.”

“Gee thanks. No one has told me that before. They always called me a half-breed.”

Her words shocked him. Before she could continue, he suddenly slumped forward on the table, and would have sailed off the chair had she not grabbed hold of his arm and hauled him back.

“Adam, what’s wrong? What’s the matter?” Already in her mind he was Adam, and not John Adam.

He was unconscious it seemed to her, shocked when she touched his face. He was burning with fever. She shook him gently. He came to, groaning as he touched his head.

“Adam, you really are sick!” She rose and stood next to him, lifting his arm over her shoulder, pulling him up. “Let’s go.  We’re going to my friend’s house.”

***

The sick man occupied the bed in Lainey’s room. Over the next two days he had a raging fever, and Adam was for most of it in a delirium. She never left his side, comforting him when he became agitated, wiping his brow, the hair from his face. Her soothing words appeared to calm him. She bathed his flushed cheeks while he alternated between cold shivers and throwing the blankets off him.

He tried to raise himself. “I’m all right. Can’t g-go back. Don't l-let me go back.”

“Shhh...  You’re not going back,” she would comfort him, caressing his face, kissing his fevered cheeks.

“Don’t take me b-back, L-Lainey. Don’t-don’t leave me,” he would stammer as he thrashed his head from side to side.

“I won’t let you out of my sight, Adam. Now lie still, please.”

“I-I’m  so c-cold,” he murmured, his body shivering.

“Shhh... don’t talk now. I won’t let you get cold. You’ll get warm soon.”

Then Lainey slid under the covers and spooned herself to him, letting him feel her warmth until the shudders stopped. He fell into a restless sleep.

Why am I doing this? she wondered. Sticking my neck out for a complete stranger, on a strange world in outer reaches of the Gamma Quadrant. Where did this man come from? Who is he, if he isn’t John Adam? These were questions that milled in Lainey’s mind as she lay next to Adam, her arm around his waist. He was breathing more evenly now, and the fever seemed to have broken. Quietly she got up and went into the small lounge.

“So, Lainey, this is some lame dog you brought in here this time,” Cowan said, coffee mug in one hand and waving towards her door with the other.  “By the looks of it, some _handsome_ lame dog.”

“By the looks of it, a very sick man, you creep! Where have _you_ been these last two days?” she asked as she sat down in a chair.

“Making sure nobody knows about us? We’re supposed to have _refugee_ status here, Lainey, or have you forgotten that?”

“Fine. We can add Adam to our list of refugees.”

“Adam?”

“That’s what he says his name is. Actually it's John Adam, but he seems more like an Adam to me. He suffers from amnesia, that much I’ve found out.” Lainey leaned forward in her chair, her head close to Cowan’s. “We’ve got to help him, Cowan. Have you seen him? Pale features, sky blue eyes, very blond hair? He stands out like a sore thumb around here. One of the few humans around.”

“You want to hide him under the bed?” Cowan asked with a smirk.

“I want to take him with me, Cowan. To Danae. He’ll be safer there in the commune I live in. Maybe he’ll regain his memory, who knows?”

“Lainey,” Cowan said tenderly, for he cared a great deal about his young friend. “Listen to me...please. We’ve been friends since Kessik IV. I know you pretty well. You don’t normally make friends - good friends - that easily. Too afraid you’ll scare them off. But this Adam... Lainey, have you looked in the mirror? Your eyes are shining. I’ve never seen that.” Cowan paused to take another sip of his coffee. He looked speculatively at her. He was convinced Lainey didn't know how much in love with Adam she already was. He was concerned, already seeing how she could get hurt. She’d  had enough of that before he had brought her to this sector of the Gamma Quadrant.

“I...I guess you can say I -I like him. He looks so helpless, Cowan.  Like he needs me. I’ve never been really needed before, you know? I want to help him get better.”

Cowan uttered a curse. “You’ve fallen for him, Lainey! It’s evident in your eyes, the way you won’t leave his side. I haven’t been away these two days! ”  He smiled when he saw her puzzled look.  “I was right here, all the time. But you were so absorbed with your patient, I might as well not have existed.”

“He doesn’t want to go back to that facility. I heard stories about that place, Cowan. If I take him with me, they might stop looking for him. I don’t know what he’s done and I don’t care, because he appears too refined, even through his stammer.”

“Lainey, Lainey,” Cowan urged her. “Look at me, okay? What I’m going to say, I’m not going to say again.” He placed his mug down on the coffee table, then he cupped her face.  “You’re setting yourself up to get hurt in a really big way.”

“Then I guess that’s a problem I’ll have to deal with, isn’t it?”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Laney. Good luck. I’ll probably see you from time to time. I can arrange some quick transport to Danae. It leaves today. You’d better get Adam ready and leave as soon as you can.”

“Thanks Cowan. As always, you are a great friend.”

She went into the bedroom where Adam was still sleeping. He was much calmer now that the fever had broken. Her heart went out to him. _I’m falling for you, Adam and I don’t know why. I just know I want to have you with me all the time_ were her thoughts. She wiped his face and hands with a warm cloth. Lainey touched his cheek with the back of her hand, then brushed his hair away from his face.

“Don’t leave me, Lainey, " he murmured.

“I’m not going anywhere, Adam. Now rest.” Somehow she felt calling him Adam sounded better. In her consciousness he was already Adam, and not John Adam.

A warmth came over her as she touched his lips. _I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck_ , she thought. Falling for a sick and unconscious man who didn't even know his real name.

She stayed with him until he awoke naturally. His eyes were bluer than she'd thought. They were no longer bloodshot. They were also clear of the fever, a virus that had brought many of the planet’s inhabitants down. The mortality rate among the Melvechians was high.

“Lainey.”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Thank you, Lainey.”

“Adam, we have to leave here. We’re going to the commune I live in. It’s called Danae, a thousand kilometers from here. How do you feel?”

“Much better,” he said as he heaved himself into a sitting position. 

He raised his hand to touch the ridges on her forehead. She closed her eyes at his touch.

“You-you are beautiful,” he whispered. She smiled at the compliment.

“Come, we have to prepare to leave. Cowan has lent you some of his clothes.”

“Cowan?”

“Oh yes, the friend I told you about. You’ll meet him just now. Ready?”

Adam nodded, suddenly glad that he had bumped into Lainey that night. He started up, frowning.

“Lainey, how-how long...have I - I been here?”

“Two days, Adam. You were unconscious for two days after the Festival of the Moons.”

He sighed, then looked at her. “You-you have been very good to-to me, Lainey.” He smiled, and she thought how it lit up his face. Her heart hammered wildly as she realised how much she was already in love with him. She didn’t have time to think her decision through of taking him with her. And inevitably she blamed her decision on her Klingon impulsiveness.

**

Adam felt happier than he had been for weeks since escaping from that facility for the mentally handicapped. He was happy to be with Lainey, in the house they shared in the commune at Danae. It wasn’t something he could concretize as a definite emotion, but he knew he felt different, like he never had before. It felt like he had come alive. Lainey made him laugh. He became more confident and his stammer had vanished completely. They were poor, but every day was for them a day to look forward to, because they were together. He was slowly accepting that he would probably never regain his memory. But it seemed not to matter to him anymore. Not as it had before. It was as if his life began with Lainey. She gave him a reason to get up in the morning and not feel that old hunger to wonder about his past anymore. Whatever his past could have been made up of, even though he had no frame of reference to measure what he felt, deep in his being he couldn’t have been as happy as he was now. Or so at peace with himself. It was something he experienced that was perhaps subliminal.  As if the part of his consciousness that belonged to his former life, broke through that threshold where he could see the unhappiness, the absence of inner peace.

He was certain that he retained aspects of his past life, but they were things like knowing he was in the Gamma Quadrant. Strangely enough, he knew his age, but couldn’t remember his date of birth. Little things like that. The unimportant things, he thought. Not "Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I here? Who are my parents, assuming I have any? What was my profession? Why did I end up in that hospital?"

Yet he was no longer agonizing over even the important issues about his past. To him, the here and now mattered, because the here and now meant Lainey. Lainey who never left his side. He felt at peace.

“Lainey?”

“Hmmm...?” She stirred lazily where they had been lying on a blanket under a tree on a rise not far from their house. He was staring intently at the sky. Then he sat up and looked at her.

“Lainey,” he said again as she sat up and rested her head against his shoulder. “Lainey, I...I have fallen in love with you. I love you.  Very much. I - I’m asking you to marry me, Lainey,” he implored as he looked into her ever widening eyes. They were shining.

“Oh, Adam, I’ve run after you from the very beginning. I’ve never let you out of my sight since you bumped into me that night of the Festival of the Moons.”

“Never leave me out of your sight, Lainey. Never again,” he said passionately.

“Adam, you do want it, don’t you? Marriage?”

“More than anything  in the world. My life began with you. I can’t imagine my future without you.”

“Oh, I’d better say yes quickly, before you change your mind.  Darling, it’s yes! Yes!” And she threw her arms around his neck with complete abandon.

“Now I can relax,” Adam sighed, pressing her to him again.

“Adam, darling, you proposed to me. Aren’t you going to kiss your future bride?”

He cupped her face, her lips quivered slightly, an expectant look in her eyes. He briefly brushed her brow with his lips. She closed her eyes, and he pressed his lips to her closed lids, before they came to rest on her mouth. She moaned softly as she felt desire flaming through her. She opened her mouth so he could probe inside, tasting her tongue, tracing her teeth, moving his lips against hers all the time. He kissed her long and passionately.

He broke off the kiss long enough to groan raggedly: “Lainey...I want you...” before he pressed her gently down on the blanket.

 

***

TBC


End file.
